Ranking the Oregon teams of the Chip Kelly/Mark Helfrich era

Avinash's ranking

1. 2010 - This one was the closest to perfection. Obviously the 2012 and 2014 teams were probably more talent-heavy, but this Ducks team ran through the Pac-10, beat up Stanford in what amounted to a title elimination match, and had only one real scare on the year before going to the wire with Auburn. Who knows what happens if Dyer's knee doesn't go down.

2. 2012 - That 2012 team was really, really, really good.  Honestly, this is probably the one that got away the most more than 2010, because that team would've almost certainly blowtorched Notre Dame. Alas, they had their Stanford hiccup (play that game 100 times and Oregon wins it 80%), and here we are.

3. 2014 - If this team stayed healthy, they'd almost certainly be number one. But the injury bug killed them against Arizona and caught up to them against Ohio State.  A healthy Ducks team probably wins the national championship, but for some reason they just couldn't stay healthy.

4. 2011 - Transition team with a talented backfield but a lot of hiccups. The LSU game wasn't actually that bad, the De'Anthony fumbles just killed them. But they were losing by 24 at home to Lane Kiffin.

5. 2013 - This Ducks team was in transition after losing a bunch of defensive talent. Stanford and Arizona wrecked them and they got their fair share of challenges from other teams too. Whipped UCLA but no other real impressive victories. They went 11-2. Geez, they're 4th.

6. 2009 - Pretty good team. Rolled over Pete Carroll's USC team (albeit their weakest incarnation) and obliterated a pretty solid Cal squad. Had to squeak past the best Mike Stoops and Arizona had to offer and won an epic Civil War. But the Boise game is still talked about and they got plowed by Toby Gerhart and Terrelle Pryor. They were just learning what they were capable of.

Jack's rankings
1. 2012 - This edition didn't make it to the championship game because of the way things fell nationally, but they were the best of the bunch for my money. They had the best combination of freshness of scheme and talent of the era along with having Marcus Mariota, even if he was just a freshman. They were only really truly challenged once by a stellar Stanford team that was due against them and they ran through a Pac-12 that was much better than it was in 2010. If you simply had to ask me which Duck edition I would least want to face as an opposing coach, this is the one.
2. 2010 - This to me was the peak of when people really did not know how to stop Chip Kelly's offense and they kicked it into hyperdrive. It showed in the Ducks running the table in the regular season while only having one close game. Running away from an outrageously good Stanford team and Andrew Luck was a major statement and their defense put together an epic performance against an outstanding Auburn team with Cam Newton and Nick Fairley that almost got them a national championship. I also think that this team had a bit more of a chip on its shoulder than later editions with players like LaMichael James, Jeff Maehl, David Paulson, Brandon Bair, Casey Matthews and Kenny Rowe who were not big time recruits but excellent college players.
3. 2014 - This was probably the most purely talented of any of the Duck teams in my opinion (especially along both lines and at receiver) and seeing a quarterback with as much talent as Mariota in his fourth year in the system was basically unfair to opponents. They hit a very rough patch where they lost to Arizona and easily could have lost to Washington State, but that run from the UCLA game to the Rose Bowl was as good as any they have ever put together.
4. 2011 - This was a bit of transition between the two best teams in my opinion and they especially weren't as good on defense as some of the other editions. However, the offense was still on fire and they won their first big bowl game in the era with a Rose Bowl win over Russell Wilson along with a second-straight statement win over a powerful Stanford team.
5. 2013 - The first year under Helfrich was a bit of a transition and they faded down the stretch for a lot of reasons, but they were just about as good as ever when they were rolling. However, you simply cannot overlook that bad run at the end of the season of getting bulldozed by Stanford, blown out by Arizona and nearly beaten by an average Oregon State team.
6. 2009 - This one reminds me a bit of a debut album by a great band where you can hear where they are going, but it just isn't quite refined yet. Teams were just starting to even get a look at their scheme and it showed, but they also took a while to get it going (see Boise State debacle), had a vulnerable defense and were far too one dimensional with Jeremiah Masoli at quarterback.